In A Good Horse Is Never a Bad Color, Mark Rashid continues to share his talent for training horses through communication rather than force. Rashid uses humorous, feel-good stories to relate his techniques of teaching horses by examining their view of the world. These stories deal with many aspects of buying, owning, and training horses with a special focus on those that are troubled and hard-to-train. The arrested development of horses like these, Rashid shows, is often a result of their trainers’ own lack of understanding of their unique psychologies. With stories that stress the importance of patience and understanding, this book is a must-have for compassionate horse trainers and owners. Tales of Arabs, appaloosas, and paints—mistrusted and mistreated because of their breed—will give readers a new perspective on these breeds and others. Sometimes, it’s the attitude that needs to be fixed rather than the horse. Rashid’s accounts of horses bound for slaughter because they were considered impossible to train will inspire you to give your own problem horse a second look. This new edition features added introductory notes for each chapter that contribute to a better understanding of Rashid’s philosophy and methods.

A Colorado clone of James Herriot reveals the evolution of his trainingskills through well-told...

Many horse trainers, even those who espouse the so-called natural horsemanship approach, take the position that horses who fail to obey a human's request are doing so as much out of perversity as ignorance. That's not Mark Rashid's view. In his words, "If we understand that horses can't separate the way they feel from the way they act, then we can start to see that unwanted behavior isn't bad behavior at all. More times than not, it's just the horse expressing the way he feels at that particular moment in time. . . .How we perceive that information dictates how we respond to it." Whole Heart, Whole Horse focuses on this idea, covering such subjects as gathering information from the horse, turning rider/trainer mistakes into positive experiences, developing realistic boundaries between you and your horse, understanding how and why horses release energy from real or perceived traumas, and reaching a comfortable balance point between horse and rider. Rashid analyzes developing softness, consistency, dependability, trust, and peace of mind in both horses and humans, as well as how to become a leader whom your horse will willingly want to follow and work with. Full of examples that extend beyond the training pen, Whole Heart, Whole Horse offers good sense and information that will make you a more astute, capable, and sensitive horseman and person.

In Horses Never Lie, renowned horse trainer Mark Rashid challenges the conventional wisdom of “alpha leadership” and teaches the reader to become a “passive leader”—a counterpart to the kind of horse other members of a herd choose to associate with and to follow. Applying Rashid’s principles and techniques helps cultivate horse personalities that are responsive and dependable regardless of the rider. Reliving Rashid’s experiences with him, you will come to feel the same sort of compassion and appreciation for your horses that you do for the people in your life. This new edition features added introductory notes for each chapter that contribute to a more complete understanding of Rashid’s methods and philosophy.